Track construction



Aug. 27, 1940. 1.. T. BURWELL TRACK CONSTRUCTION Filed March 11, 1938 Rm m v m Lester T. B wweH KfL ATTORNEY.

Patented Aug. 27, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE My invention relatesto track construction and has particular reference to the holding ofrail against longitudinal creeping or expansion (which term alsoincludes contraction) due to temperature changes, and the provision of asuitable tieplate and fastenings. Y

My present invention has particular refer,- ence to open track abovesurface, laid on tiepla-tes fastened to ties which are embedded inballast, preferably cinder or stone, the rail being subject to a widerange of temperature from mid-summer sun to the cold of winter. Whileholding the rail against expansion, and

permitting the rail to be laid without expansion gaps, my invention alsocontemplates holding a rail against creeping caused by traffi'c, by braking, or by other forces and conditions.

An object of my invention is to provide a comparatively low costimprovedtrack construction which is safe. A further object of this invention isto provide means and method of holding a rail without restricting-thewave motion but which limits the upward movement of the rail whether dueto wave motion or not.

In general I prefer toprovide ,a rail seat on the tieplate, preferablycrowned or cambered to provide line contact only between the rail andthe tieplate. I prefer to provide shoulders on both sides of the railseat or equivalent bulwarks against lateral movement of the rail. Iprefer to permit the rail to have free and unrestrained verticalmotionbetween the bulwarks but definitely to limit the extent of thatfree motion'to a safe amount so that there can be no danger of the railjumping the shoulders or escaping if the rail fasteners should break,become dislodged or be destroyed. In such construction, my inventioncontemplates a rail fastener firmly gripping the base flange of the railtop and bottom, that part of the rail fastener which grips the bottom ofthe rail flange to be confined in an opening inthe tieplate abuttingboth sides of said opening at a point below the rail so that therestraining force of the tieplate on the fastener acts in or close tothe plane of the gripping force of the fastener on the rail, to avoidpivoting of the rail fastener with consequently play and loss of grip.

I prefer that the construction of the opening in the tieplate be suchthat the fastener may be driven into position with a spike maul or thelike and thereafter a rail spike or other tieplate fastening be driveninto a prepared outer portion of the tieplate opening or elsewhere,where it performsits main functions of holding down the tieplate and ofoverlying the rail or rail fastener, preferably both, .but the overlyingportion spaced from the part it overlies so as to limit but not prohibitupward motion of the rail. The tieplate fastening may but does notnecessarily form the sole backing for, the rail fastener.

Where itdoes form such sole-backing it preferably actsas a block betweenthe edgeoi the tieplate opening'and the back of the rail-fastener, onwhich the rail fastener slides'up andxdown and in such case the block orspike may be of hardened spring metal. as is the rail fastener itself.

I prefer that the dimensions of the rail fastener shall not affect thedimensions of thetieplate holding means, or vice versa, and to that endthat the tieplate opening be larger or smaller, as is required, at theouter end'so that the tieplate fastener shall fit into the tieplateopening and thus the tieplate be prevented from moving on the tie. 1

Lastly, my invention contemplates a balanced rail fastening for eachtieto prevent either split- 1 ting, rolling or slewing rail fastenersdiagonally across the railfrom each the tie, by placing the other, oneon one side of the center line and the other on the-opposite side of thecenter line or line of contact between rail and tieplate. .Preferably,the center line of rail, tieplate and tie are undisturbed by thisconstruction. I may similarly stagger the tieplate fastenings also, ontangent, track.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, as will be apparent as thedescription proceeds, my inventionresides -in *the combination andarrangement of partsgandin the details of construction described in thisspecification and particularly pointed out in the appended claim. Iintend no limitation other than those of'the claim when fairlyinterpreted in the light of the full disclosure and :the present stateof the art, it being understood that changes maybe made within the scopeof what is claimed without departing from the spirit of the invention."

In the drawing, illustrative of 'a preferred and other modificationso-fmy invention, Fig. 1 is a frag-mentarycross sectional elevation of arail, tieplate, rail fastener and tieplate fastener disposed accordingto my invention; Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional plan view atthesurface of the tieplate in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a sketch of the tieplatefastener 'of Fig. 1; Figs; 4 and 5 are views similar to Figs. 1 and 2,of a. modification of my invention;- Figs. 6 and 7 are similar views ofanother modification; Fig. 8 is a sketch of the modified rail fasteningof Figs. 6 and 7; Fig. 9 is a sketch of still another modified form ofmy invention; Fig. 10 is a fragmentarysection on the line-I'll of Fig.9;' Fig. 11 is a plan view'of the arrangement of a tieplate andfastenings according toathe device of Fig. 1. T

Similar reference characters relate to correas 3 (Fig. '11). Thetieplate is preferably'cambered or crowned, as at 4, and preferably isdouble shouldered 5, 5, (Fig. 11) and provided with a spike hole on eachside 6, 6, adjacent the rail, inga'ddition to the opening'provided forthe rail fastener.

To hold the tieplate to the tie, various forms of spike fastenings maybe used, the particular form of the spike not being my invention butdesignated herein as 1, 1A, 1B, the spike I (Fig. 6) being an ordinaryrail spike, spike IA being a form of resilient wedge spring spike, 1Billustrative of a full throated cut spike of well known construction.Various spike combinations may be used, as suggested in the arrangementof Fig. 9; described below T Besides the usualr-ail spike holesdiagonally disposed, the tieplate 2' is provided on each side of therail seat with an opening 8 under the rail "and extending outwardlybeyond the rail edge a greater. distance than the spike hole, the outerend preferably widened'in the arrangement of Figs..l and 2, but narrowedin the 'arr-angeme'nt of Figs. 4 and 5, of the same size (Fig. 9 brdivided to form a U-shape (Figs. 6 and '7). A rail fastener of resilientmaterial 9, preferably U-shaped, which may be relatively elongated 9A(Fig. 4) or'slotted 93 (Figs. 6 and 8), is provided to be driven on theedge portion of therail base 'I and to fit into a slot 8 so as to abutboth side walls thereof at points below the a rail base, the grippingforce of said fastener being sufiicientto restrain longitudinal movementor expansion'of thejrailQ This fastener is adapted to be driven" bya'spike'maul or the like and may 'be held from backing off or release,by abutting the edges 10- (Fig. of the tieplate opening." It is apparentthat in this instance, the opening 8' extends out from the rail, edge adistance less than the length of the lower portion'of the rail fastener9A,

Preferably the opening 8 extends a distance greater 'than the length ofthe lower portion i5 of the rail fastenerB so that the fastener may bedropped into the opening and driven into place without lifting therailJIn such instances the outer end of. theopening may widen abruptlyto provide-abutment shoulders ll (Fig; 2) for the tieplate fastenings,in this instance the spring spike IA, against the hardened surface ofwhich the rail fastener 9 may slide up and down, limited by theoverhanging arm l2 (Fig. l) which extends over the rail but is spacedtherefrom. A portion 13 on the other leg of the spring spike lA servesto limit the amount it can be driven, as does the full throat I4 of thespike 13 (Fig. 4). Inlthe latter instance the outer portion of theopening 8 is narrowed and fits the spike'IB so that the ti'eplateis heldfrom jmovement on the tie. It is essential for the tieplate to be heldwhen on a wooden tie not only to prevent movement of the rail; but alsoto prolong the life of the tie.

If the'rail fastener 9Bis slottedthrough the bend of the U, a U-shapedopening may be provided at thel'outer end of the opening 8 and thespike! may be against the rail edg'eand abut the tieplate portion l6(Fig. '7), the spike head overlying both the fastener 93 and the rail 1,the railifastening 9Balso held from backing off by the spike I and, inturn, furnishing a'filler portion on each side of the spike to preventtieplate movement on the tie.

In some instances I may prefer to dispose the several parts as indicatedin Fig. 9, the fastener 9 being of spike width and backed up by ablocking spike l in the outer part of the opening 8. Alongside the willalso provide in anordinary rail spike holeB, a spring spike 1A, forexample, generally of spike dimensions, overlying the rail to limitupward motion (Fig. l0) and serving to hold the tieplate 2 to the tie bythe spring wedging effect in the spike hole 6 and an anchor below thetieplatein the tie.

Preferably, as in Fig. 11, rail spike holes 6 are provided, one on eachside of the rail seat, for emergency, and the rail fastener and tieplatefastening on one side of the rail is in a difierent opening whichextends under the 9.11 seat and out from the rail edge a greaterdistance'than the ordinary spike hole 6. These fasteningson one side ofthe rail are preferably'diagonally disposed from similar fastenings on'the other side of the rail and are on the opposite side of the contactline, thus providing a balanced rail fastening with free movement up anddown-of the fastened rail portions at these points of substantiallygreatest rail flexure over the tieplate. one fastening on each side ofthe rail and one fastening on the approach side of the centerlineofcontact and another on the departing side and the spikes are not inthe same grain of the tie or along the rolling axis. The holding forceson the rail act on each side below' the base of the rail and areequalized. My invention, as thus set forth, has particular efficacy inholding long welded rails or successive rails not welded but with endsbutted together without expansion gaps- What I claim is: Q In a railroadtrack construction, incornbina tion, a rail so laid as tobe effected bytemperature changes and free from any embeddingmaterial and a supporttherefor including a tie anchored in ballast and a tieplate between saidrail and said tie provided with an opening therein under the rail andextending outwardly beyond the edge of the rail base and changingabruptly to greater width at the outer end thereby providing abutmentedges for a tieplate fastener, a rail fastener comprising a resilientclamping member gripping the rail base top and bottom and provided witha lower portion thereof clamped against the under side of the rail baseand positioned in said tieplate opening in abutting relation to the sidewalls thereof below the rail of such character that the rail is heldfrom longitudinal creeping or expansion due to temperature changes andispermitted free upward movement during wave motion-and other means tolimit the extent of such free upward movement comprising a tieplatefastener positioned in the wide outer end portion of said tieplateopening resiliently wedged between the outer wall thereof and saidabutment edges and anchored in said tie and thereby serving to hold saidtieplate and in frictional engagement with said rail fastener to preventrelease of the latter; said tieplate fastener presenting a hardenedsurface to said rail fastener and provided with a portion extendingoversaid fastener of such character that the upward motion thereof islimited and thereby limits the up ward movement of saidrail during wave'motion.

LESTER T. BURWELL.

